My father is home from the hospital after his bone marrow transplant. He sent this to his friends and family today.
This is a special Thanksgiving for me. After 22 days in the hospital, I was released on Monday, a day early. I am resting comfortably at home. My stem cell transplant went very well. I was admitted to the William Clements University Hospital at UT Southwestern on November 2nd. I started chemo on November 3 for six days. My sister Kathleen flew in from Nashville and donated her stem cells on Monday November 9th. Her stem cells were infused into me the next day. I was without an immune system for about eight or nine days. Kathleen’s stem cells started “engrafting” into my bone marrow and by the time I was released from the hospital many of my blood cell counts were close to normal, ahead of schedule. According to the doctors and nurses, I pretty much sailed through the transplant without many of the complications associated with the procedure – never had a fever, one minimal mouth sore, no swelling or skin rashes, very little diarrhea, no signs of infection or rejection, started losing my hair the last couple of days, so I had my head shaved. I haven’t had a burr hair cut since 1957.
This Thanksgiving I have many things to be thankful for. I want to thank my parents for their love which created my sister Kathleen. She was a 100% match and was enthusiastic about the opportunity to donate to save my life. I am thankful for the love, prayers, and support of my children Eric, Eileen, my brothers Tim and Stephen. I appreciate the phone calls, support and prayers from my aunts, uncles, cousins, longtime friends in San Antonio, Boerne, Lampasas, Dallas, California, North Carolina, Missouri, and former teaching colleagues.
I am thankful to all of the medical professionals that treated and guided me through this process. What is amazing to me is that the melting pot nature of the United States led to me being cared for by doctors and nurses from around the word. Texas Oncology Presbyterian Dr. Katherine Wang – Shanghei, China, UT Southwestern Dr. Madhuri Vusirikala – India, Dr. Collins- USA, Dr, Patel – India, M.D. Anderson Dr. Kantarjian – Lebanon, nurses and technicians’ from Philippines, Trinidad and Tabago, India, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, England, Ft. Worth, Round Rock, Keller, and Dallas.
I am thankful to President LBJ for creating the Medicare system that allowed me to be treated without going bankrupt, charitable foundations – Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Patient Access Network for providing financial medical assistance, President Obama for the Affordable Care Act which will prevent the medical insurance industry from discriminating against my pre-existing medical condition.
Although I never have and probably won’t ever understood it, the God that created this world with all of its beauty also has terrible diseases, yet has a hand in creating scientist and doctors that continuously improve the lives of people by curing those diseases. My sister, who had a life threatening disease, was cured by a new medication just six months before I was diagnosed with my life threatening leukemia, allowing her to be my stem cell donor. Go figure. Thanks God.
The journey continues, hopefully my body and Kathleen’s stems cells will not reject each other and I will be out of the woods and cured in about a year.
